All American Girl vs. Fresh Off the Boat

All American Girl is a sitcom that came out in the 90's which stars an Asian American cast. Margaret Cho stars as an Asian American character named Margaret Kim. All-American Girl highlights the life of Margaret, a progressive twenty-three year old Korean American woman living with her conservative and traditional family. I watched the first episode and it brought up the the culture of the family right away and the traditions that they have. Margaret wants to date this American boy named Kyle but her mother doesn't approve because he isn't Korean. Margaret is tired of her mother always trying to set her up with Korean boys who are smart and successful. She goes on a date with Kyle and then reveals to her mother that she loves him and will be moving in with him. Even though she knows deep down that she doesn't truly love him, she is saying this to scare her mother. She wants to be able to make her own decisions without her mom going against her all the time. 

The show got mixed reviews at the time. The show could be improved especially when the actors try to speak with a Korean accent; it didn't seem natural. Some of the cultural references in the show are confusing as well. Despite this, it's great that a show like this was even on the air because it revolves around an Asian American family. Much of the criticism surrounding the show seems to be coming from people who feel All American Girl doesn’t match their vision of what a Korean or Asian American show is. This is only one program that cannot have all the things that people want. 

Twenty years later, the ABC network  ordered a pilot for a new sitcom named Fresh Off The Boat. It is based on comedian Eddie Huang’s autobiographical book by the same name. The sitcom focuses on Huang’s childhood moving from a racially diverse neighbourhood in Washington DC to a predominantly white neighbourhood in Orlando, and the culture shock that occurs there. Years after All-American Girl, a show like Fresh Off The Boat as well as other sitcoms of its kind are long overdue. There are only a handful of television shows and sitcoms that star Asian Americans and as Chang wrote, each show must“be all things to all people” which is an impossible task. When Fresh Off The Boat was on the air it broke the trend of having only one or two Asian American sitcoms on TV at a time. This is the first step to creating a genre of Asian American primetime cinema in which each show has the freedom to speak to of the Asian American experience, and not depend on any single show to speak for our community in its entirety. I enjoyed the two Fresh Off the Boat episodes that I watched. The characters are bold and the pacing is snappy. It's a sitcom so it's not without its corny sitcom trappings and maybe half of the jokes really worked for me. But it seems worth making the time for. It has promise and the show has some quality actors.